Former WFOR anchor and reporter Art Barron is now headed to the web.
Barron was one of the casualties during WFOR’s layoffs in September 2007. In January 2008 he landed an anchoring job at KSTP, the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. But now management there is giving him a new job description – web producer for KSTP’s upcoming neighborhood websites.
Hubbard Broadcasting is launching 80 to 90 hyper-local sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area covering specific neighborhoods and Art Barron will be working on those.
KOMO, the ABC affiliate in Seattle, launched dozens of neighborhood sites last year that have had great success both financially and in terms of attracting visitors. I used to visit some of them quite a bit while we lived in the Seattle area and found them quite informative.
/hat tip @allplatform/
Hyperlocal sounds like a good idea and the trend for local media sites. Look at how the Miami Herald has introduced their “community news” on Herald.com’s front page. I’m sure Art rather be on the anchor desk. He’s a good guy and a solid TV man. I’m glad I had the opportunity to work with him at WFOR.
The web is where it’s at. Who really has time to get their news from appointment viewing on TV at 5, 6, or 10. What the US stations are doing is a great idea. If I live in Miami Shores for example, and want to know whats happening in my town, I would go to a Miami Shores website. It’s the same thing we are doing here in Colombia. If you want to know whats happening specifically in Colombia, you go to http://www.colombianews.tv. It’s the future of information. We all used to get it at 5, 6, and 11. Now, we can get it whenever we want online.. on demand.
Just keep the citizen journalists from taking professional’s jobs. This was pointed out on one of the weather forums. Funny. http://www.worldcorrespondents.com/breaking-news-tornado-hits-florida/882292